Bruins Struggling Defensively

 

The Bruins put their 3-game win streak on the line in Montreal on Saturday in their last regular season meeting with the Habs. The Habs have had the better of the Bruins this year, winning two of the previous three meetings, though all three games were decided by one goal. The Bruins got off to yet another slow start, and Montreal took advantage 7 minutes in on rookie Alex Galchenyuk’s goal. Galchenyuk took advantage of some sloppy play by the Bruins in the defensive zone and banked one in off of Bartkowski’s leg. The Bruins finished the period only down 1-0 despite getting outshot 10-5. Michael Ryder added to his hot-streak scoring his 16th of the season on a tip in just 57 seconds into the period. The goal was scored on a powerplay with Milan Lucic in the box as a result of a very questionable penalty called at the end of the 1st period.

The Bruins got their lone goal of the night six minutes later when Johnny Boychuk’s wrist shot took a whacky bounce off of Paille’s back and into the goal. Their play picked up for the rest of the game but Carey Price was up to the task, making 26 saves by the end of the night. The Bruins thus went 1-3 against Montreal this season and lost most hope of catching them for the division lead, barring an unforeseen tailspin by Montreal. While there is cause for a little concern about the combined 1-5 record the Bruins have against Pittsburgh and Montreal (the two teams in the East with more points than them), they have not lost any of those five games by more than one goal. Thus, they will clearly put up a good fight if they meet either team in the playoffs, which they almost certainly will if they plan to make a deep playoff run.

Routing Carolina

The Bruins then came back home to play the Carolina Hurricanes in the TD Garden. Carolina came flying out of the gate and fired seven shots on Rask before the Bruins got their first shot on goal. Luckily, however, Rask was up to the task, and the Bruins’ first shot resulted in a rebound that Peverley buried on a wraparound. Rookie goalie Justin Peters looked clueless as Peverley’s shot ricocheted off his shoulder and behind the net where Pevs picked it up and swung it around into the net before Peters had even located it. The next two goals, both in the first period, came off the stick of Brad Marchand. Both goals were rebounds from wraparounds, one by Gregory Campbell and one by Jaromir Jagr. The first squirted through Peters’ pads across the crease without Peters knowing and Marchand tapped it into an open net. That goal, the Bruins’ second on four shots, chased Peters from the net just 8 minutes into the game.

The ‘Canes wouldn’t get much more help from their replacement, Dan Ellis. The B’s third goal came in a similar fashion when Jaromir Jagr took  a great drop-pass from Marchand, deked a defenseman, wheeled around behind the net and attempted the wraparound. Ellis stuffed it, but the rebound came out into the slot where Marchand backhanded it in. The Bs extended their lead in the second period to 5-0 off of goals from Andrew Ference and Jordan Caron. They then obviously took their foot of the gas pedal in the third as they surrendered 2 to Carolina before icing the cake with a sixth goal, this one from Nathan Horton.

While a 6-2 victory is extremely hard to find faults with, the truth is, the score did not reflect the overall performance from either team. All it reflected was very poor goaltending from the Hurricanes and excellent goaltending from Tuukka Rask. The Bs were outshot 42-36 in the game and 18-9 in the first period, showing their inability to start games fast. It’s also not acceptable to continue giving up 40 shots a game. They’ve given up 158 shots in their four games in April, averaging 39.5 shots against per game. While their goaltending has been good enough to earn them a 3-1 record over that span, it’s not a sustainable model. Some of the lack of defense can be attributed to the absence of Patrice Bergeron, but his injury can’t be an excuse for letting their goalies get shelled.

On a Positive Note

Brad Marchand and Jaromir Jagr seem to have found great chemistry as they continually connect on no-look passes and are great at creating space for one another to work in the offensive zone. I’d like to see them centered by someone more skilled like David Krejci, especially if the Bs are down late in a game and need a goal. For now, though, it’s hard to argue with Gregory Campbell’s 2 assist night while centering them. Campbell was one of six Bruins with a multi-point night on Monday, the others being Seidenberg, Ference, Marchand, Peverley and Jagr.

The long awaited arrival of Carl Soderberg finally seems imminent as he and Bruins have reportedly agreed to a 3-year deal. His talent should help the Bruins out offensively while his size could be a plus defensively. Hopefully he will be able to adjust quickly to the pace of the NHL game. The Bruins have a light schedule to finish the season with only two of their ten remaining games against teams in the top 6 in the East (Pittsburgh and Ottawa). They will look to pickup their play and get into playoff form down this final stretch, starting with the Devils at home on Wednesday.